Bear Mountain Classic: When Road Racing Finally Goes to Plan
Europe has it’s Spring Classics, and Spring here can only mean one thing, it was finally time for the Bear Mountain Classic. I was coasting into the weekend on our hype thread, hype race forecast, hype photos, and hype Friday coffee laps (where we saw Penn Badgley and I controllably fangirled for the remainder of our coffee sesh). The weather was looking perfect, 70’s and sunny, ideal short sleeve jersey weather imo.
After picking up my buddy Sammie and cramming our bikes into my tiny car like circus clowns, we made the quick ride up to Lake Welch Beach to meet up with the other TBD’ers racing in the second wave.
We navigated around the particularly cracked parking lot, secured a good spot by the bathrooms, and proceeded to unload. I went through the range of pre-race emotions, that special combination of excitement and nerves. I tried to play it cool to a friend and nonchalantly said my race will be “two laps of bliss.” Not sure I really convinced anyone there.
My plan was to control the race outcome to the best of my ability. I wanted to set up the kind of race I wanted, instead of being reactive to moves from riders in the field.
The W 4/5 field was only doing two laps of the course (28 miles total), so not a lot of time to mess around and wait. I was planning to be at the front of the field as soon as we hit Tiorati and start setting the pace. I rode hard, but within myself trying to thin the field down to a more manageable size. By the end of Tiorati, the field was worked down to five (success!!). The vibes in our little group once we hit Seven Lakes Drive were high. We all had a brief moment of relief knowing we had made the break.
At first, we weren’t very organized getting the paceline going but fortunately we had a good enough gap on the field. I spent my time on Seven Lakes Drive recovering and enjoying the nice lakeside views.
As we rounded the loop back to Tiorati, I hopped on the front again to set the pace. I wanted to use this last climb on Tiorati to drain what was left in everyone’s legs. I tried to put my best game face on, relax my posture, and not let on that I was in pain.
Once we got on Seven Lakes Drive, one of the riders in our group got on the front and started hammering the pace and led the group all the way to Lake Welch Drive. When we turned onto Lake Welch Drive, the same woman that was on the front got a little bit of daylight. Our group eased up coming out of the corner and I figured it could be a good tactic to let her go for a bit before I made my move (she had dropped her only bottle within the first mile of the race, and since I was borderline cramping after drinking two bottles with electrolytes, I was sure that I was making a sound tactical choice).
I made my ~move~ shortly thereafter standing up and trying to eek out what I had left in the legs. I had that woozy pulsing feeling like I was just about to cramp, so I promptly sat back down and tried to keep the pedals turning.
I made a little bit of headway on the woman that was in the lead but she was able to keep the pace high enough that I couldn’t track her down before the finish. I rolled across the finish line exhausted and satisfied with my second place effort!
It was the first time during a race that things actually went to plan, what a thrill!
After the race, I enjoyed the sunshine and watched some of my teammates crush their own races – shoutout to Ben nabbing 4th in the Men’s 3 field and Matt getting 11th in the Men’s 1/2 field.
We had a good number of TBD and NYC folks out racing and supporting. I felt lucky to be a part of such a special event so close to the city.
A note on the infamous pothole on course….
Our field was relatively lucky, I didn’t have a chance to speak to everyone but I think we all successfully managed to avoid the dreaded pothole or at least come out unscathed. On one of the descents, there was a nasty pothole which claimed upwards of 30 bottles, a Garmin navigation device, and multiple cracked carbon wheels. The pothole was the unfortunate star of many of the other races. Could it have been painted a different color other than white to notify people on the course sooner? Perhaps. Fortunately, to my knowledge no serious injuries were sustained and hopefully for the next edition of the Bear Mountain Classic, maybe it’ll be patched over.
Photo Gallery By STeph
Road, MTB, Gravel, and Long Island Enthusiast.
